[aulos43]

Dowland is a representative of the English Renaissance, which was a late musical renaissance, by Continental standards. In fact, I've long thought of this music as having many "proto-baroque" features -- for example the melody-accompaniment-bass texture. It reminds me of the monody-based works of the Italian originators of opera and the basso continuo sonatas that became the mainstay of baroque chamber music.

I seem to be drawn to transitional eras in music. Examples would be John Dunstable, ushering in the renaissance; English Renaissance composers like Dowland and Byrd slipping between modal and tonal; the proto-classical composers like Monn, Wagenseil and Stamitz pioneering the (modern) orchestra and the sonata form; Beethoven presaging the Romantics; Arnold Schoenberg moving beyond common-practice tonality; John Cage pushing the boundaries of what we think of as music.

Walt